Revolution Televised.pdf

Respect Yourself! 117
tion of blacks into American society. While this was a worthy step
in the right direction, Kanter believed that the incorporation of
so-called radical black politics would not sell to a mainstream U.S.
audience.
On the other hand, from its inception, Diahann Carroll acknowledged
her differing views on the possibilities of the program. Herein
lies the power of the black woman’s voice to complicate the conciliatory
imagery presented on the screen. Much more outspoken
than her televisual counterpart, Carroll was an active supporter of
the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. She not only participated
in the March on Washington but also raised money for the
more “militant” SNCC. She was hopeful, though not naive, about
Julia’s presence on network television. If nothing else, she saw it
as an opportunity to draw more African Americans into television
production. She pushed for stories that would at least address some
issues of race. In later seasons, she insisted that her character wear
a natural so as to address the changing black views on black pride.
To the wide audience reading popular magazines, Carroll’s words
presented an opposing dialogue to the discourse of the actual episode
texts.
For example, when addressing one of the central points of contention
over the program—the lack of a husband for Julia—which,
as black critics suggested, “contributed to the castration theme prevalent
in Hollywood’s customary depiction of the American Negro
male,” 14 Kanter responded:
In every other TV situation comedy, Dad is a bumbling idiot . . . he
can’t change a light bulb without short-circuiting the traffic light on
the corner. Is it better to have a stupid, fumbling father with a matriarch
who really runs everything or to have, in absentia, a man of
heroic proportions whom you can allude to and talk about? 15
Diahann Carroll did not comply with Kanter’s views and within
the same article suggested, “To remove the father image, the strong
center of the family, is a very damaging thing to do to black children.”
She also acknowledged that the writers tended to create,
“the white Negro. And he has very little Negro-ness.” 16 It is this
oppositional dialogue that needs to be addressed when discussing
Julia and other black-themed programs. It indicates that some black
performers did not fear challenging a producer publicly. While this